Beech Tree News Network

“I call shotgun” is, at least in the United States, the widely understood declaration that the speaker has claims on “shotgun” or the front passenger seat.  For a trip with multiple passengers, calling “shotgun” affirms one’s place in the most desirable seat in the car.  But where did the phrase originate? If you’re thinking the old west, you’re half right.

When stagecoaches were common sights in the 1880’s, the driver would typically assign his adjoining seat to a weapon-toting colleague whose job it was to ward off any thieves or plunderers encountered along the way.  These passengers often carried shotguns, since a roaring blast from one would make it easier to hit one or more assailants from a jostling carriage.  It’s natural to assume the seat grew to be known as “shotgun” for this reason alone.  And it did-just not in the Old West.

No contemporaneous records exist of anyone using the term “shotgun” to describe the side seat as stagecoach.  It wasn’t until mass media became preoccupied with Western tales that the phrase began to work its way into the American vernacular, with television writers using the term “riding shotgun” to describe the presence of an able-bodied, buckshot-spitting comrade.

One of the earliest mentions came from the 1921 short story “The Fighting Fool” by Dane Coolidge, where a character said to be “ridin’ shotgun for Wells Fargo”.  The phrase was also used in 1939 John Wayne film Stagecoach, featuring the open decree “I’m gonna ride shotgun”.  It’s likely these modern references to historical events led to the phrase becoming commonplace in the middle of the 20^th century particularly as the new medium of television began to grow overstuffed with primetime Westerns (in 1954, Andre De Toth made a feature with Randolph Scott called Riding Shotgun). www.mentalfloss.com is the source of this column.  Below are the links to my podcast, Blendertainment:

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=w5jHghPVRmaTaP5ZEI-wzQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172